Teens die trying to beat black box car insurance curfew

Two teenagers died because they were rushing home to beat an insurance company’s evening curfew, a coroner has suggested. Oliver Pain, 18, and Harry Smith, 17, suffered fatal head injuries when the Renault Clio, driven by Pain, left the road on a bend near his home near Dursley, Gloucestershire.

Mr Pain’s car was insured under an insurance policy that relied on a telematics ‘black box’ recorder that monitors how, when and where the car is driven. Mr Pain had been driving at speeds at up to 74mph as he was concerned about breaching the rules of the policy, which prohibited him from driving the vehicle between the hours of 11pm and 5am.

According to reports, this particular policy doesn’t impose any penalty for speeding unless the driver goes at least 50 per cent above the speed limit, however breaking the curfew would have caused Mr Pain to incur a fine of £100. Coroner David Dooley recorded a verdict of accidental death, suggesting Mr Pain’s attempt to beat the curfew was “a very significant factor in his driving.”

Gloucestershire Police collision investigator David Holland said: “This trip seems to have been an exception to [Mr Pain’s] previous driving record. He exceeded the limit throughout the journey right up to the collision point. One must question why he decided he needed to drive quickly on this journey – the answer to which, I believe, lies with the tracking device and the criteria of its use.”

Mr Dooley suggested he was willing to write to insurers Towergate Smart to make clear his “real concern of future deaths” if the current system is not changed.